Im running Windows 7 Enterprise x64 in a domain environment. Our printers our managed by a central print server and are manually added by browsing to the print server (\\printservername), where the list of printers pops up. From there I double click which printer I want to connect to and it normally adds it and installs the driver. However since moving to Windows 7 this functionality has stopped and now when I click on a printer to add it, I get a message saying it couldnt find a suitable driver on the network (printer drivers are all loaded on to the print server), and asking to me to try and locate the INF file. In the past this process has worked flawlessly for Windows Vista Enterprise (both x86 & x64), but now it does not work for Windows 7. Any ideas?

That is because the drivers that are stored in the server are not compatible with Windows 7. What are the systems of the domain server? You may install the latest printer drivers on the printer server and then try to deploy printers on Windows 7 computers. However, if the latest driver are not for Windows 7 and do not resolve this issue, or the printer drivers are not designed for enterprise environment, we may need to manually add the shared printer on client computers. In this case please follow the steps below. Step1: Remove the existed printer driver. 1. Click Start, click Control Panel and double click Devices and Printers.2. Click on the icon of the printer, click Remove Device.3. click Control Panel and double click Program and Features.4. Remove the program for the printer. Step2: Reinstall. 1. Click Start, click Control Panel and double click Devices and Printers.2. Click Add a Printer. 3. Select "Add a local printer". 4. Select "Create a new port". Choose "Local Port" as the type of the port. 5. In the box "Enter a port name", type the address as the following format. \\[IP address of the host computer]\[The Share Name of the printer] Then click Next. 6. Choose the correct driver in the driver list. If no available driver, click the button Windows Update, wait for the process finishes and then look for the driver again.7. Finish the installation. If no driver is available, please download the latest driver from Internet, and then install the driver on the computer. Most printer driver installation program can help us to install a shared printer. During the installation, it may prompt that if you would like to install a local printer or a network shard printer. Then select the correct option and finish the installation. You can either follow the steps above to add the printer driver again. If the above suggestions do not work, the network printing with these printers may not work in Windows 7 systems.Arthur Xie - MSFT

OK, step 2 worked. The reinstall. I was able to add the printer and connect that way. The driver installed just fine. However, I just talked to a co-worker is who is running Windows 7 Professional (x86), and he can add printers from the same print server just fine. He gets all the correct dialogs and drivers install just fine. So why would my computer not be able to add printers like every other computer in the domain?

A possible reason is that the printer host is a 32bit system, the printer driver it provides works in Windows 7 32bit, but not 64bit.Arthur Xie - MSFT